If you look real close you can see Mexico behind us. 
Karl and Mark being Karl and Mark… GOOFS.
Me being smiley, and Karl Jumping of things again.
That Random sign was in the middle of the barren desert, with postings to places all over the world.
Fairly cool….Amazingly random.
Yep….That’s the Grand Canyon. Oh how b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.
We like to play pranks on our boys… the cookies have toothpaste, and there are gummy worms( but the thing is they are not all real).
Hello all! So some of you might have been wondering….but yes, we are alive. And, contrary to popular belief, our sanity is mostly intact. Since we’ve been back from Christmas break we’ve had quite a few adventures. (as is evident by the pictures above….which don’t even begin to scratch the surface) So grab some snacks and settle in, cause this one’s gonna be a long one…..
We started off our road trip with a lovely drive down through Cali to Palm Springs, and then over to Grants NM. Grants was pretty much awesome, including our host home and the youth. We had elementary retreats for a week, Kids our such a blessing they have so much faith. Even though they are so small. YOPu wanna know whats funny? I will tell you… It’s funny how when you ask kids a question they go off non tantrums, (My mom has two pink shoes… My grandma died… I had a fish his name was poccomo… While we were there however, our suburban broke down, stranding 2 of our number in Albuquerque. But our host parents stepped right into action and helped get them back home. The ‘burben however, needed a new engine. So we were looking at being stuck for a week without a way to get to our next destination. (quite a cliffie huh? whatever shall the Reach team do next?) Luckily Deacon Tim got the diocese of Gallup to loan us two vehicles until we could get the Green Machine fixed. We are forever grateful for that. God never stops providing.
With those cars we drove to Roswell for our next retreat. Again, we had host homes that were so amazing that they’re beyond description. The Shuberts overheard us girls talking about pranking the boys, and when we came back from our retreat they had made cookies and had put super hot pepper flakes in some for our boys. Ten year old Gracie proceded to offer them very enthusiastically to the guys. Troy began begging for milk. =P
Our retreat at the camp near Roswell was great, and very memorable. Toni’s small group took out some canoes on the “river”…..and then 4 of them had to be pulled out of the freezing cold water. But it made for a great story Sunday morning at Mass. While we were in Roswell we decided to visit Carlsbad Caverns, and the parish lent us their bus (which was actually a giant yellow airtport shuttle) so we would only have to take one vehicle. We all got our own row of seats. It was awesome.
After Roswell we went to Albuquerque to stay with Ciera’s family and the youth minister of her parish….and to pick up El caca de Verde, which had a new engine. That night as us girls drove to our host home the Burb stalled for the first time, but it started pretty soon after we pulled off the road and we got back without anymore problems. My brain is fried now, so to be continued…
God bless,
Happiness is a choice you make every day when you wake in the morning. So in all you do say praise God. That is what I challenge you to do this week. If your Car gets stolen say Praise the Lord! Give thanks to God!
. We went to mass on Thanks giving, which was a miracle! Watched the Parade, had a ton of food, and an amazing game of Confusion Rummy (a card game a lot like Phase Ten). We watched what I believe is a Gresham tradition, the Thanks giving episode of Gilmore Girls, Which by the way I believe Kelly and her sister can quote the entire Gilmore girls episodes by memory synchronized very entertaining to hear and watch.